Are chickens really smart? Because in one of my runs my are chickens digging up something like a trench. Right now in the summer time we get a lot of rain in Florida so I think they are building a small trench to get all of the water. Are chickens that smart? Here are some pictures of the small trench around the run.

My chickens do the same thing all along the fencing. I always figured that the soil was a little looser there so they liked to dig at it getting bugs or making holes for dust baths. Who knows, maybe they are trying to keep dry!

My chickens scratch around in the mud more than in the dirt, and if we always had mud along one fence, there would likely be a trough there soon enough. Also, they look for bugs, and bugs are more likely to hide or ESCAPE under the wood fencing, so the chickens, knowing the bugs are there, will scratch there to try to drive them out into the open.

Mine do the same thing. They prefer to dust bathe along the fence, I think they use the fencing as "support" something to push against to get better traction to help loosen up the hard soil. My entire coop and run has an "internal" trench around the inside edges.